"What did Oxhide-style Ingot storage and transport look like?" Topic

I haven't had much luck with Google Image searches, so I thought I'd turn to the hive mind here.

I find oxhide-style ingots to be very interesting – I understand that the shape was likely useful for transporting the ingots, but I haven't had much luck finding pictures of them in transit OR in mass storage. I can only find pictures of single ones in museums.

Can you direct me to any online resources (or just link a picture) that show how they were carried, transported, and also stored when they were being warehoused? I figure that someone, somewhere must have done some art of this, but I haven't had any luck finding it.

Thanks!

-Alex in Alaska

Ingots of what ?

Ingots of copper, I think.

IIRC National Geographic had photos of the underwater excavations of some early cargo ships which had stacks of ingots, back somewhere in the 1960's. So you might want to check if your local library has the DVD archive, or try to search Nat Geo's photo archive directly.

From memory they just looked like stacks of 'X' shaped ingots with no special framing or packing, just stacked in sloping piles against the side of the ship – of course the ship may have gone down due to the cargo of ingots breaking loose and piling up in the wrong place.

You mean these things:

I think you're expecting too much: they'd just be stacked in a ship; nothing special:

I like this modern reconstruction:

This article may be of interest

link

Yeah, I was thinking Copper ingots.

Thanks – these do give me some ideas!

It is believed that they were used for archery practice ..

Phil
Ancients on the Move